Ginn
by Rostand
Summary: Written as a commission, staring the commissioner's OC, a shinobi named Ginn, an old flame of Kakashi's who finally returns from her mission abroad.
1. Chapter Unu

Ginn Ginn **Kauri**

A gentle breeze blew through the silent forest, rustling the fading leaves, burnished with the hues of autumn. There was no sound carried on that wind but the fairly mundane whisper of the leaves. A horrible stillness lay on the world. Then, so faint the average ear wouldn't, couldn't have detected it, the tinkling of a tiny silver bell. Three blurs of motion appeared almost out of thin air, diving for the upper branches of a huge gnarled oak. 

"I'll surrouund her, you two get her!" Naruto cried. "_Art of the Doppelganger!_" 

Sasuke smirked to himself. Foxboy used t hat one jutsu far too often. But it had its uses, especially in such a situation as this. She had gotten careless, and now every branch of every tree in a half-kilometre radius was festooned in Narutos – not insubstantial shadow clones, but flesh and blood opponents. Moving without prearranged signal, he and Sakura split up, moving around to circle her, with a few Narutos as back-up. They exploded onto one of the topmost branches, dead leaves puffing in clouds about them. She stood before the, her arms folded and an eyebrow raised almost in scorn. With a shout, Sasuke and Sakura began their attack, flinging shuriken as they launched themselves from chakra-enhanced feet. 

With astonishing fluidity and rapidity, she performed a complex hand seal, calling out, "_Art of Angel Flight!_" With a blast of backdraft that scattered shuriken and a few white feathers, she launched herself on immense white wings effortlessly through the canopy. Sakura screamed and flung up her arms as Sasuke's shuriken, their flight now wonky and robbed of a target, whirled towards her. With an abrupt smack, the two genin collided, flying off the branch and plummeting, so suddenly they could barely think. Mid-air, Sasuke twisted like a cat, but still landing awkwardly and painfully on the litter below. Sakura's descent was halted by two strong hands grabbing her forearms, almost dislocating her shoulders in the process. Her breath jerked from her chest, she looked up, gasping, into the smiling faces of two Naruto clones. They carefully lowered her to the next branch and then vanished as Naruto ended the jutsu. 

All three peered at the sky through the canopy, where she wheeled above them. Naruto squinted. "Since when does she have wings?" he grumbled, folding his arms and scowling. 

Abruptly, she folded her wings and dove, flaring them again as abruptly to hover a few feet above the ground. "The exercise is over, girls," she drawled. "Good work. We'll head back towards Kakashi now." 

Sullenly, the three genin trudged after her as she flapped lazily through the trees. When they reached the broad, flat meadow, she soared up, then came to rest crouched on the large rock beside everyone's favourite jounin, sprawled reading the ever-present Make-out Paradise, an alightment that would have been the very picture of grace and ease, if not for the fact that her foot slipped on the moss, making her scramble for a moment to remain upright. The wings glowed soft golden for a moment before disappearing, resolving themselves into two wing-shaped hair clips, caught up in the short blue hair. 

Kakashi glanced up, his one visible eye indolent. "How did they do, Ginn?" 

She shrugged, sunlight glinting off her glasses. "Fairly well, actually. Good reaction time on all their parts, good coördination and strategy. They managed to block off every escape route with a feasible amount of success – every route, of course, except the one I took." 

Naruto harrumphed. "How were we supposed to know you could freakin' fly?" 

Ginn stuck her tongue out at him and continued with her report. "A good shinobi could consider all possibilities. I'd like to see Sakura take more of a leadership role in the future, though." She touched her cheek, and they all noticed for the first time the thin line of red that marked it. "The Uchiha brat actually managed to nick me." 

"You probably waited too long," Kakashi said, a slow smirk creeping across his face. "You always did have a flair for the dramatic." 

Sasuke folded his arms and snorted and exasperation. "Master Kakashi, why are we doing this? This is the first test you gave us! Aren't we beyond this by now?" 

"One question, Uchiha" Ginn replied instead. "Did you get the bell?" 

Sasuke looked furious, and Naruto snickered. Kakashi smiled. "That's enough for one morning. Eat your lunches." 

The genin gathered in a quiet, sullen group across the meadow, shooting occasional looks at the pair perched on the rock, talking quietly with each other. Naruto remembered perfectly the day the shinobi Ginn had shown up. It was during a training exercise seven days ago, and as he had been creeping towards Sasuke's entrenchment, that blue head had popped out of the leaves and nearly gave him heart failure. Kakashi had barely blinked when she had followed the freaking-out Naruto back to home base. Since then, she had taken over a good deal of the their training. 

"That woman has it out for me," Sasuke growled. "It's like the very thought of my existence disgusts her." 

"She's not that bad," Sakura piped up, swallowed her rice. "She's really been helping me out this past week." Naruto almost snorked his rice, and Sakura glared at him as Sasuke pounded him on the back, concealing a smile of his own. "Well excuuse me for finally having a female shinobi I can look up to!" she retorted huffily. Then a smile crossed her face. "Ya gotta admit, though, that angel jutsu was pretty cool." 

Across the clearing, the jounin kept half an eye on their charges as they ate. Their speech was strangely formal, as it had been since Ginn had arrived, a stiffness both noticed but no one else, a stiffness both resented but could do nothing to change. 

Kakashi swallowed and set down his chopsticks. "Impressive bit of ninjutsu there. A variation on the henge no jutsu?"

Ginn nodded. "A little trick I picked up in Lightning Country." One hand crept towards the angel clips. "They're not just for decoration." 

"I, uh, noticed them," Kakashi said, glancing up at them and then down at her face before looking quickly away again. "Pretty." 

"Me or the clips?" Ginn asked lightly, jokingly. 

Kakashi didn't reply, and there was a long, uncomfortable silence. Ginn was about to open her mouth to crack an apologetic joke, when Kakshi muttered, "Both." Then he bounced to his feet and called across to the genin. "All right, slackers, on your feet!" 

Ginn's grin was hidden in the clamour of groans and barely muffled protests that followed.

The sun was staining the western sky red that evening as the day's training ended. The two girls had disappeared into the woods for a short talk, leaving the boys alone in the clearing. Sasuke sat cross-legged on the ground, frowning as he concentrated on something, with Naruto sprawled beside him, quietly whingeing to himself as he massaged aching feet. Kakashi lounged in his normal indolent idiom, Make-out Paradise firmly clutched in one hand. 

There was a faint rustling sound, and a moment later Sakura and Ginn reentered the clearing. Clearly exhausted, the genin flopped to the ground beside her cellmates, a study in contrasts to Ginn – taller, more flamboyant, and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of energy and good cheer. She bounded over to Kakashi, landing in a frog-like crouch beside him, avoiding the slippery moss. With a swift dart of her arm, she yoinked the dirty novel, holding it above her head delicately in two fingers as if it smelt bad. 

"Really, Kakashi-kun, you haven't grown out of these things yet?" she demanded, wrinkling her nose. 

He smirked, not making a move to reclaim it. "You haven't called me that in a while." 

Three jaws hit the turf in admirable synchronization. The genin stared. No one touched the book and lived. They didn't know any shinobi brave or stupid enough even to try. 

"Did she . . ." Naruto asked. 

"Yup." Sasuke replied. 

"And he didn't . . ." 

"Nope." 

"Is she . . ." 

"Probably." 

Naruto shook his head in amazement. "Sakura, you grab the sackcloth and I'll get the ashes."

Grey twilight settled over Konoha some days later, bright stars twinkling above, some obscured by dark clouds passing before them. The gibbous moon hung, shrouded and cushioned in cloud, over the sleeping shinobi village, sending faint light down from the heavens. 

Kakashi came awake suddenly, silently, as the door to his room was slid aside. Long habit and longer trained kept his breathing low and regular, his eyes still closed, appearing for all intents and purposes to be deep in slumber. A faint displacement of air told him the intruder was moving. The whisper of silk a moment later confirmed it and pinpointed their location for him. He tensed slowly to spring. 

"I know you're awake, Kakashi-kun," Ginn's voice came lightly as a weight settled on the end of his futon. 

Kakashi relaxed and opened his eyes as he sat up. Ginn knelt on the edge of the mattress, dressed unusually in a silk kimono, loosely tied at the back. The moonlight poured through the window, catching and highlighting her unusual silver eyes as she gazed at the other jounin, his hair more rumpled than usual and the sharingan eye swirling lazily just below the surface. Ginn had another witty remark lined up, but Kakashi's laconic gaze made her tongue stutter and fall silent. 

"Ginn." Her name was little more that a low vibration in his throat. "I suppose there's a reason for disturbing my beauty rest, ne?" he murmured, smirking. The remark revived and ancient running injoke; the proper response at this juncture would be, 'Kami knows you need it,' but Ginn hadn't come to banter. 

"Seems like you're getting plenty." 

His eyebrow twitched skyward at the break in tradition. "You've gotten more than seems fair in Lightning Country." 

Ginn huffed. "Kakashi-kun, what are we doing, dancing around each other like fools? Things weren't like this between us when I left." 

"It has been seven years," Kakashi reminded her gently. "I was afraid things would change." 

"Change?" she demanded. "What do you take me for, some flighty noblewoman?" Her expression fell abruptly. "Unless . . . things have changed in Konoha, and then I'm the only fool." 

Kakashi shook his head quickly, straightening. "No. Never. I swear to you," he said, his voice low and emphatic. 

Ginn grinned wolfishly. "Then where's the problem here?" Her hands went to the neck of her shift and Kakashi's eyes were drawn inexorably along with them. With a dramatic tug, the silk fell away, revealing absolutely nothing underneath. Ginn leaned forward, her silver eyes predatory and gleaming. Kakashi swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry. 

"Ginn . . ." 

"Shut up and strip." **FIN**


	2. Chapter Du

Ginn Ginn **Kauri**

**Author's Note:** Well, Silver, here it is, finally. I tooka few liberties with plot, kept the vague 'Orochimaru wants Sasuke's body' thingummy . . . well, hope it entertains. Sorry it's so late. 

Ginn gave a throaty murmur of visceral pleasure, much like a cat in a patch of sun. She was warm, she was comfy, she was nestled against something firm yet soft, smooth, and pulsing with life. She was exactly where she belonged, a feeling she hadn't had for a very long time – seven years, in fact. Kakashi was awake, she knew, and creeping daylight made the world red behind her closed eyelids. The arm draped across her ribs pulled her closer against Kakashi's side and she mewed again. A low chuckle vibrated through her bones. 

"I missed that sound," Kakashi murmured. 

Ginn's lips curled into a grin, but she didn't move except to burrow closer. In fact, she had absolutely no plans to move in the foreseeable future. Then an image flashed across the warm red haze of her mind. 

Kakashi was very seriously considering either going back to sleep or mayhaps initiating another round of that other nocturnal pastime, when Ginn suddenly exploded from the bed, limbs and blankets flying everywhere as she dove for her discarded shift. Her foot caught the edge of the silk, and she went sliding across the polished wooden floor, cracking her head on a low-hanging crossbeam and falling on her backside with the kimono across her lap. 

"Owww . . ." she crooned, slapping a palm to her forehead as Kakashi boggled, propped up on his hands in the tangled remains of the sheets. There was a shout from the hallway and the door slid open with a loud snick. Iruka jumped into the room, warily on guard. 

"Kakashi!" He stopped abruptly, blushing furiously as he took in the scene. "I, ah, er, heard a ruckus and, uh . . ." His voice trailed off uncomfortably. 

Kakashi opened his mouth to say . . . something, but Ginn beat him to it. She peered up at the sensei from under her hand, knees drawn up demurely as she clutched at the kimono. "Could you describe the ruckus?" she asked lightly. "Did it perhaps sound like a female shinobi forgetting all her training and things subsequently going horribly, horribly wrong?" 

Iruka nodded a bit desperately. "That . . . could be it," he croaked, averting his eyes. "Ah, Kakashi, I was just on my way to, ah, inform you that Ginn hadn't reported to the Hokage this morning for her official debriefing. I, ah, guess you found her." 

Ginn winced. "Ah, I totally forgot. Got a little distracted by my own . . . debriefing." Her eyes sparkled with mischief as she fairly drawled the last word. "My bad. Can you tell him I'll be there in five minutes?" 

Iruka nodded and beat a hasty retreat. Kakashi glanced over at Ginn in all her spastic glory, and started to chuckle. "There's the Ginn we all know and love," he said. "I was beginning to think your most endearing trait was merely a phase. I was so disappointed." 

"Har har har," Ginn retorted tonelessly, scrambling to her feet and draping the kimono around her shoulder, cinching it a bit sloppily as she padded over to the reclining Kakashi, dropping to one knee beside him. "I have to run," she murmured, dropping a quick kiss on his lips. "See ya later." Then she was gone, as quietly as she had come. 

Kakashi let out a frustrated groan and flopped back down onto the bed. So much for a pleasant morning spent lolling in bed, not with the very clear memory of what he would be missing in said bed. With a sigh, he rolled to his knees and up, preparing to greet the day and take out some frustrations on the most readily accessible target – some poor, unsuspecting genin. 

Ginn kept her face perfectly expressionless as she stood in a parade rest before the Hokage. It had taken almost all her ability to keep from crying out a moment earlier when he had made his disastrous announcement, bust she couldn't keep from saying something at all. 

"Are you certain, sir?" she asked, surprisingly calmly, from behind gritted teeth. " I might have become too well-known in Lightning Country to be of much use anymore." 

The elder waved a hand dismissively. "Then I will send you to Water or Sand Country. Your talents would be wasted here, especially as an assistant to a competent sensei." 

Ginn ruthlessly choked back the urge to cry. "If I may ask, sir, when will my new assignment be commencing?" 

"Two weeks," the Hokage said. "Unless the situation changes." Then he turned way from her in a clear motion of dismissal. 

"Two weeks unless the situation changes!" Ginn fumed, stalking through the crooked streets of Konoha. "Two weeks! He sends me away for seven years, I'm barely back a week and it's gone again!" 

A startled cat mewled loudly as she stomped by, startled from its quiet contemplation, and streaked away over a wall. Ginn felt momentarily guilty, but was altogether too pissed off to care. She considered her options. The genin had the morning off, but training would commence again at noon. It was just about half eleven now, so that left her with half an hour. She considered trying to find Kakashi again, but knew if she did that they would keep Team Naruto waiting for an hour or more. She snarled to herself. First of all, she needed to calm down. There was a brief flare of white light and she swooped away over the wall in a blast of backdraft and white feathers. 

Twenty-five minutes later, Ginn dropped out of the cloudless sky in a dead dive, her wings already reduced again to hair clips, and almost gave Naruto a heart attack as she dropped into a couch right beside him. Kakashi simply raised an eyebrow. "And what were you up to?" 

She jerked a thumb upward. "Riding the thermals. Some nice winds this morning." Ginn had done a lot of thinking as she swooped and floated above the forest canopy, and decided not to tell Kakashi that she was leaving again. Two weeks of mind-blowing monkey sex and then a casual, over-the-shoulder parting quip as I leave. No angst, no romantic promises, no tears, she reminded herself firmly. That's the way it will be this time. "So, what are we up to today?" 

As Kakashi sketched in the day's task, the three genin reacted in slightly different ways. Naruto began to visibly wilt as the ordeal took shape, his expression taking on a despairing, almost panicked look. Even Sasuke began to pale slightly. Sakura's eyes narrowed as she observed the two jounin and how they worked together, and her own little suspicions began to grow. They were almost confirmed when Ginn "accidently" leant a little bit too close and Kakashi faltered for a moment. A tiny little smirk fought its way to the surface. 

Half an hour later, as they were running the first leg of their grueling scavenger hunt/obstacle course/gauntlet/execution march, Naruto, as usual, was grumbling. "Why us? Why is he torturing us so?" he moaned theatrically and added, with the typical crudity of teenage males, "Kakashi needs to get laid." 

"He already did," Sakura replied. 

Naruto fell out of his tree. 

"Say what?" Sasuke demanded. "That was a bit of a non-sequiteur." 

"How the hell do you know?" Naruto spluttered, regaining his footing. 

"Couldn't you tell?" Sakura asked, but didn't get to elaborate as a sudden hail of shinai ripped through them and forced them to break formation to evade and conquer. They were kept hopping and the matter of Kakashi's sex life (or lack thereof) was forgotten. 

Two weeks. Two weeks of torturing defenseless genin. Two weeks of, admittedly, mind-blowing monkey sex. Two weeks was all she had, and she made them count. While discretion was, of course, necessary, Ginn dragged Kakashi all over Konoha, to all her favourite spots, and he followed like a puppy. 

All too soon her last night came. Her orders were to leave at daybreak the next morning, but she saw no harm in leaving a bit earlier than that. Her pack was squared away, ready to go in the room she never used. She never brought Kakashi there – he would be sure to notice that it was too barren. She hadn't bothered to decorate, or even unpack much. 

In the dim predawn, when Kakashi slept most heavily, Ginn uncoiled like a cat and wriggled out from his side. The jounin shifted and muttered, but stilled as Ginn rested a hand lightly on his forehead. Tears pricked at his eyelids, but she ruthlessly supressed them. She dropped her carefully composed note before the door as she stepped out. Fifteen minutes later, the trees closed around her and Konoha was behind her. Her orders were tucked away into a pocket, pitiful comfort that was. Her eyes were surprisingly dry. 

I am a shinobi, she reminded herself ruthlessly. My destiny is not my own. 

Still, she dragged her feet as the village hidden in the leaves disappeared behind her. 

Kakashi looked grim that morning and barked orders to the three genin without any preamble, sending them scrambling. When he finally allowed them to collapse, exhausted, on the ground five hours later, Sakura asked the question Naruto was panting too hard to get out. 

"Where's Ginn?" 

"She left," Kakashi grunted shortly. "Fifteen minutes for lunch." As the genin complied, he allowed himself to close his eyes and think of Ginn. He had heard her leave, but that wasn't unusual, so he had fallen asleep again, until the sun had pricked him fully awake. And he had discovered the note, a simple folded piece of paper in Ginn's familiar scrawl. 

'It was good, Kakashi. I have a mission, an assignment, and I don't know when I'll be back. I love you. Ginn.' 

The hell couldn't she have let him know? No way that this was so sudden she couldn't have given him at least a few days advance warning. He wanted to hit something. 

His opportunity was on the way. 

Around noon of her second day on the road, Ginn stopped by a small stream to rest and refill her canteen. The trek had been lonely and se hadn't seen anyone since passing the last guard outpost yesterday afternoon. She took a long pull of her canteen, emptying it before dipping it in the stream. 

Abruptly she gasped and swooned, the canteen falling from her fingers and drifting swiftly downstream. A horrifying series of images flashed in front of her eyes and blood pounded through her temples. Without thinking, her pack dropped to the ground and wings exploded from her back. It took her an hour to reach the watchtower. It was empty. She sailed over Konoha, following the prompting of some gigantic mental finger. The village seemed deserted, but she found all the resident shinobi in the clearings and pathways surrounding it. They slumped against trees or on the ground, exhausted or dead, and the bodies of foreign shinobi mixed with the fallen leaves. 

Ginn found Kakashi in the clearing they had often used as a base for training. There were three dead foreign shinobi scattered before him – they looked young, like genin. As she circled lower, Naruto and Sakura limped out of the woods, practically holding each other up. She cut the wings and dropped the rest of the way, landing on the soft turf and sticking it for once. 

"What happened?" she demanded as Kakashi started. 

"Ginn . . ." 

She shook her head. "Later. What happened?" 

"Orochimaru," the jounin said shortly. "His forces came, hit us hard." To the unspoken question in her eyes, he shook his head slightly. "No. He wasn't here. But they took Sasuke. I . . . was too weak to follow. 

"Which way?" 

"North." 

"How long?" 

"Twenty minutes, maybe less." Kakashi raised himself a bit. "Ginn, there were three strong shinobi with him." 

"There's two," Naruto said, glaring pugnasciously at her. "Now there's just two." 

"Good work, short stuff," Ginn said absently, turning towards the north. "I'm going after the Uchiha brat." 

She ran. Leaping, running, using springy trees as catapults, using every chakra-saving trick she knew, Ginn ran. Sasuke's captors had been clumsy, and he was obviously struggling. Still, Ginn kept an eyes out for a false trail – or rather, for the right trail. And she saw it. Well, kinda felt it. The false trail continued in a straight line, but Ginn swung around a tree, jumped over a fallen trunk at right-angles to the path and kept running. 

Sasuke was almost unconscious, slung across the broad back of a foreign shinobi. He had fought as hard as he possibly could, but even the scion of the Uchiha clan have to collapse some time. His mind was sluggish, but he formed a plan nonetheless. Chances of success were, however, slim to nil. 

The shinobi marching behind him suddenly grunted and spun around, off balance and staggering. A line of shuriken were buried in his back, interrupting the chakra flow along his spine and probably causing quite a bit of pain at the same time. Ginn plummeted through the foliage, knocking him backwards with a powerful, precise kick to the head. The bigger shinobi growled and flung Sasuke to the side, hitting a tree trunk and sliding down into a leafy hollow. 

Ginn played the thugs off each other with delicate finesse, jumping and dodging and using even the simplest of techniques with devastating effect. As she successfully drew them off, she circled around for she was between them and Sasuke while the genin revived. Ginn was getting tired, though, and se wanted to finish this. Executing a truly impressive set of flips and twists that sent the attackers stumbling back, she hissed soto vocce to Sasuke, "Close your eyes!" 

He complied, squeezing them shut as she jumped onto the branch above him. If his eyes had been open, he would have seen her perform a handseal similar to the one that triggered her wings; he could, however, hear her perfectly. 

"Art of Divine Radiance!" 

The shinobi screamed and clawed at their eyes as a massive ball of pure energy appeared in her hands and expanded, bathing the entire clearing in its light. Blinded, the shinobi could still fight, but their movements were sluggish, as if fighting in a block of Jell-o. Ginn's eyes were clear; she could see every detail in perfect clarity, the trajectory of each attack. She moved in real-time. 

Less than a minute later, they were both dead. 

Panting, Ginn stood. "Uchiha, how ya doing?" 

All Sasuke could manage was a grunt as he pushed himself shakily upright, sitting down. 

Ginn grinned. "Good enough for me, kiddo." She hopped down beside him and got the genin in a rough piggyback. Sasuke was briefly started when her signature wings flared on either side of him. "We have to get back to Konoha, fast," she grunted in explanation. Sasuke just buried his face in her neck as they pushed off through the foliage. But before they could break through into the open sky, Ginn ran into an invisible wall just as a force grabbed her from behind. 

She dropped Sasuke as they fell, straight down to the loam, trying to keep herself from wheeling into a tree. She landed hard on the ground beside Sasuke, who was back on his feet already. She tottered into him, her feet and ankles stinging from the impact. A cloaked figure stood regally on a limb before them and Ginn groaned. 

"Orochimaru," she said. "The menacing bad guy cloak thing is getting very cliché." 

"The Uchiha boy is mine," the figure said impassively, ignoring her. 

"I believe the phrase is, 'over my dead body'," Ginn growled. "Followed, of course, by 'bring it on'!" She launched herself at the shinobi with a powerful thrust of her wings. They exchanged a flurry of blows, ending with Ginn landing on the opposite branch and Orochimaru's cloak settling, barely ruffled. Her hands flickered in a complex pattern and Sasuke squeezed his eyes shut. 

"Art of Divine Radiance!" Ginn cried, and started moving. 

Orochimaru moved with her, past her. She allowed herself half a moment of surprise before the evil shinobi hissed, "Even blinded and slow, I'm still faster than you, little girl!" 

A blast of pure chakra energy slammed her against a tree. The trunk cracked, splintered, and toppled on top of her. One wing barrette shattered and fell to the loam. Orochimaru landed lightly and stalked towards her as she struggled weakly, her vision blurring. Blood trickled from her mouth and she coughed, almost choking, but the fierce fighting light in her eyes never died. 

Abruptly, the black figure froze and suddenly dissolved. A tightly wrapped scroll fell to the ground, a shinai embedded deep in it. Sasuke was standing, leaning against the tree and panting heavily, his throwing arm dangling. He staggered towards Ginn and she blinked blearily at him. 

"S-Sasuke?" she murmured. "G-g-good job, kiddo." 

And then all was black. 

Item One: soft bed. 

Item Two: warm covers. 

Item Three: hand gripping hers. 

Item Four: Kakashi. 

Ginn's eyes refused to open, crusted shut. She heard a little huff of breath beside her as someone – Kakashi – moved. Finally her eyes obeyed and she slit them open against the sudden light. Kakashi's face hovered above her, smiling softly, and she returned it, but her dace didn't seem to want to obey. 

"Ka - ka -" she croaked, and felt a finger press against her lips. 

"Shhh," Kakashi murmured. "Sleep." 

She slept. 

The next time she woke, there was no fuzzy intermediate stage. One moment she was asleep – the next, awake. Her eyes flicked open as she absorbed her surroundings. She was tucked into a bed – not hers, it was too soft – and theroom told her it was Kakashi's. The pressure on her hand, lying on top of the coverlet, made her roll her head sideways. Kakashi was asleep, curled on his side on the hard planks of the floor. His arm was thrown across her hers, his large hand enfolded her smaller one. 

She must have moved, because he blinked awake and winced as his uncomfortable nap took its toll. 

Ginn chuckled and he pulled a face. "Good morning," she murmured. 

"It's the afternoon," Kakashi replied softly, sitting up and crossing his legs without releasing her hand. "How do you feel?" 

"Fine," she said. "A little bit achy, but fine. Sasuke? Naruto? Sakura?" 

"All fully recovered," Kakashi relied. "Sakura's been lurking outside since she got patched up." 

"That drama queen packed a punch," Grinn said, grinning lopsidedly. "So that's what it's like to have a tree fall on you. How long have I been out?" 

"A couple of days." Kakashi glanced away. "We're, um, lucky you came back when you did." 

"I had one of my flashes," Ginn said softly. "I wouldn't leave you like that." 

"I suppose you'll have to return to your mission as soon as you're well," Kakashi continued, his grasp on her hand tightening slightly. 

"I guess so." 

"I'd better go tell the healers you're awake," he said abruptly, and practically fled. 

Ginn was confined to bed for the rest of that day and ordered to have a lie-in the next morning. "When she finally did get up, the Hokage had ordered her presence. As she stood in Kakashi's room, pulling on various bits of body armour and cinching them in place, there was a soft knock at the door. 

"Come in," she called. 

The screen slid sideways with a little click. Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto stepped in, with various degrees of decorum. Sakura hesitated a moment before hugging her tightly and stepping back. 

"Sasuke told us what you did," she said, blushing slightly. 

Ginn shrugged a shoulder self-consciously. "Uchiha saved my life, I saved his. No worries." 

"Can you teach me how to do that light thing?" Naruto blurted out, and wined as Sakura elbowed him in the back of the head. 

"Ginn's been reassigned, remember?" she hissed as Naruto rubbed at it. 

Abruptly, Sasuke thrust something out at the jounin. "Here," he grunted. 

Somewhat startled, Ginn took it from him, and a hand went almost automatically to hair. It was the wing-shaped clip that had broken in the battle, not-so-neatly glued back together. 

"Hey, thanks, Uchiha – Sasuke," she said, gingerly pinning back her floppy bangs. "I'd look pretty gimpy flying in circles." She cinched one last buckle and cracked her back. "Okay, kiddies, the big guy wants to see me. This time, I'll say goodbye before I leave." 

Half an hour later, as Naruto and Co. sprawled across the porch of the school, working on the finer arts, calligraphy today, Ginn came slowly down the street, her face completely blank. She stopped before Kakashi and held up the small scroll that held her official commission. The genin stopped what they were doing, almost without realizing. Silently, Kakashi took it and carefully unrolled it, his eyes skimming over the neat figures. Barely had he looked at it when he abruptly leapt up and grabbed Ginn to him, sending them dancing across the street, laughing as they spun in each other's arms. 

While Naruto and Sasuke stared, slack-jawed, as Kakashi dipped Ginn back in and kissed her deeply, Sakura rolled to her knees and grabbed the scroll, reading it for herself. "Assigned to genin training in Konoha village, in perpetuity." 

Perpetuity. **FIN**


End file.
